Southampton (A) | Hardie's Reaction

Ryan Hardie made his return to the Argyle side at Southampton, 12 days after leaving the Home Park pitch with concussion suffered against Rotherham United.

Hardie was a half-time substitute at St Mary’s, coming on for Ben Waine with the game between the Saints and Argyle poised at 0-0. Ten minutes later, Argyle thought they had gone ahead, but Bali Mumba’s goal was erroneously ruled out for offside.

Southampton went straight up the other end and scored via Carlos Alcaraz, then later added a second through a Che Adams goal. It was Hardie that pulled one back, nicking the ball from the toes of goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, giving the Pilgrims hope, but they could not get a second goal to earn a point.

Hardie was naturally pleased to be back in action after seeing out the necessary concussion protocol period, but ultimately frustrated that his goal was not enough for Argyle to leave St Mary’s with any points.  

“I took a nasty hit, but I've been fine since the night of it,” said Hardie, recalling – or at least trying to recall – the day of the Rotherham game. “I don't remember much of it happening at the time, but since then I've been under the supervision of the doc and the medical staff, so I can't thank them enough for what they did.

“I've been training all week, just running, not being allowed to join in with the boys, on a separate pitch, watching them train. Obviously, it’s been frustrating, but you’ve got to follow the protocols and thankfully it was up yesterday.

“[The instruction] was to continue the good work that Waineo had done. He had run a lot in the first half and worked his socks off. It was to try to stop them getting on the ball in the middle of the park, and we could hit them on a counter-attack, which suits me a bit more, and to try and get on the ball and get behind if we had the opportunity.

“It's this kind of stuff we worked on before the game, how we were going to cause them problems were counter-attacks.

“[For the goal} I was going across the front post, so I thought my man would surely play him on. I never even thought of offside. I was away towards the fans, so at the time I never even thought of it. We've seen it back, it's onside.

“I think when it was 2-0, we just flipped a switch and we started getting after them, started putting them in uncomfortable positions.

“I always gamble on mistakes and try to give the opposition the chance to think they've got the pass on and I always like intercepting it. It's the same in the middle of the park.

“Luckily it came off then, but it never meant much in the game.

“We showed great character to try to get back in the game. That's all we can do once the decision goes against you. We've still got to try to get back in the game, and I think we did that. We were just a bit unlucky towards the end.

“It's the spirit of us, and the spirit of the fans as well. You could hear them even when we were 2-0 down. It was the Green Army that you could hear, it was their noise that kept us going. It was unbelievable the noise they made, especially when the goal went in. They tried to drag another goal in. We almost got there, but never got it in the end.

“We've got to take confidence that we've came to places like this, and Elland Road, and went toe-to-toe with good teams. I think it gives us confidence going into the rest of the season.”